Innovation and the Digital Economy

There should no specific tax regime for online companies, experts Wednesday (28 May) told the European Commission, dealing a blow to supporters of an EU-wide “Google Tax,” targeted at the digital sector.

The European Commission, member states and industry will invest more than €22 billion over the next seven years in innovation. The investment will primarily go to special sectors via five public-private partnerships called Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs).

The Commission has proposed a new industrial EU strategy for electronics, as the 27-country bloc is at risk of losing the capability to design and manufacture electronic components that are essential for the digital economy.

The EU's use of antitrust disciplines will deter some of the legal injunctions, but not solve the underlying problems – they offer no solution to the problem of how design patents, sometimes with disputable merits, can be used to block competitors’ products, writes Hosuk Lee-Makiyama.

The European Parliament is readying the publication of its software source code, a move that would open up the details of its lawmaking processes. Meanwhile a number of political activists are undertaking their own initiatives to make not only lawmaking processes, but also content more transparent.

We are entering a new phase in which China's powerful manufacturing industry is being threatened by lower wages in neighbouring countries and will have to gain its vital competitive edge from culture-based creativity and innovation, argues Philippe Kern. Much like in Europe.

Joaquín Almunia, the EU's Competition Commissioner, has laid down an ultimatum for US search giant Google to meet competition concerns as both sides signalled a desire to avoid a repeat of tech giant Microsoft’s mammoth legal dispute with the EU executive.

Telecommunications regulations, set for an overhaul later this year, could be expanded to give the mobile sector sweeping new powers over the internet, international leading players representing the web have claimed.